There's still time to enroll in the online & free Transforming Aging Summit (March 3-5)! Part of the bigger discussion, greater dynamic around aging, the summit is either sponsored or inspired by the Center for Conscious Living (its September Choosing Conscious Elderhood in eastern PA workshop is on my wish list!). Whether inspired by or sponsored, it bodes well for the value of the online summit!
I am grateful that it doesn't gloss over the realities of growing seriously & significantly older. My dear old Mom would never have been able to do all she did unless she'd recognized the challenges she faces as an octogenarian+. As the summit site makes clear, these include:
- Feeling isolated, lack of community
- Loss of purpose & vision for life
- Loss of meaningful roles
- Lack of passion, lower energy
- Physical pain & other health problems
- Denial of the aging process itself
- Death of friends & loved ones
- Absence of positive role models
- Unresolved emotional baggage from
the past - Confusion around making a contribution to the world
- Lack of spiritual guidance specifically for those in their later years
Yep, they're some of the realities faced as we age. But they don't have to keep us from engaged energized empowered lives!
Oldsters & ancients need to shake off old images & create new paradigms of aging. "Conscious & positive" - who can't get behind that image of aging?
The summit is a wondrous way for all of us - from youngers to centenarians - to hear from leaders in conscious aging. Ron Penvy, who leads The Center for Conscious Aging, is among the precious few - Reb Zalman, Ram Dass & Gene Cohen - who introduced me to the idea of creative, conscious aging. Because of them, it dawned on me that the way Mom lived all her days wasn't just a blessed fluke, but IS possible for others.
How much more accessible can it be than online & free?! There is still time to sign up for the Transforming Aging Summit, which starts tomorrow & continues to Thursday.
Even if you can't, pause to savor the moment. We are in a remarkable place when it come to getting older, taking quantum leaps toward what Reb Zalman called s-agng, into aging. Am feeling spectacularly blessed to be right where I am, right when I am, with all the the right background experience passions to make the most of this singular moment. You come, too!
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